THE 1994 CAMPAIGN: IN THE CAPITAL

THE 1994 CAMPAIGN: IN THE CAPITAL; Republican Strives Against Brutal Odds in Her Quest Against Marion Barry

By MICHAEL JANOFSKY,

Published: October 14, 1994

WASHINGTON, Oct. 13—
Carol Schwartz, the Republican candidate for mayor, stood before a boarded-up public-housing apartment in a decaying neighborhood today to announce a 15-point plan to fight crime and drugs. She arrived in a red convertible with no fanfare, was surrounded by no campaign signs or banners and drew only two neighbors to the clutch of supporters and campaign workers who met her there.

One of the neighbors, Hope Hall, asked Mrs. Schwartz why she had not let residents know she was coming. "Marion Barry's been here the last two, three days, all over the place," Ms. Hall said. "He had people going around in cars, letting us know he was coming."

A campaign worker shrugged. "We don't have the ability to do that kind of advance work," he said softly.

So it goes for Mrs. Schwartz, who is given almost no chance of defeating Marion S. Barry Jr. on Election Day.

White and Republican in a city 70 percent black and 90 percent Democrat, Mrs. Schwartz is trying what many perceive as impossible, loosening a 20-year Democratic grip on City Hall that has changed only by the name of the Mayor -- Walter E. Washington, Mr. Barry for three terms and Sharon Pratt Kelly.

So prodigious is the challenge that many Washingtonians have turned a cynical, even humorous eye toward her candidacy, wondering why she bothers. "You've got to give her points for plain old-fashioned guts," said Mark Plotkin, political analyst for WAMU, a local public radio station. "But is she politically viable? No."

Mrs. Schwartz, a 50-year-old widow with three grown children, offers her own explanation of how she could win, even if most political experts would dispute her analysis. Despite Mr. Barry's stitching together broad support from black voters to defeat Mrs. Kelly and five others in the Democratic primary last month, continuing a remarkable comeback from a drug conviction and six months in jail, just 22 percent of 305,000 voters registered cast ballots for him, Mrs. Schwartz argues; the rest voted for other candidates or did not vote, and more than 350,000 people are registered for the general election on Nov. 8.

Mrs. Schwartz, meanwhile, trounced two other candidates in the Republican primary with 3,707 votes, about 75 percent of the ballots cast.

"The numbers are there," she said the other day, sitting in her small, cluttered downtown office. "I can do it. I can win. Marion Barry has everybody convinced he's the mayor. But he's not the mayor."

Convincing voters that they still have a choice has been the biggest test of her campaign. It is not an easy sell, given the demographics of the city, the ever-presence of race as an issue, Mr. Barry's campaign theme of "redemption," which plays well among many black voters, and the limited resources of her campaign.

Unlike Mr. Barry, an entrenched political figure in Washington for nearly 30 years with waves of grass-roots supporters to rally around him on the stump and drive voters to the polls on Election Day, Mrs. Schwartz seems to operate with more of a seat-of-your-pants campaign, despite claims of 800 volunteers working for her.

Although her campaign signs plaster the city, and she calls frequent news conferences to discuss her positions, her visibility continues to pale beside Mr. Barry's, much to her frustration. At the housing project today, Mrs. Schwartz grew annoyed with reporters who sought out Ms. Hall, calling her a "Barry plant."

"You should have been with us this week in Anacostia," Mrs. Schwartz said, referring to a poor, mostly black neighborhood where Mr. Barry is revered. "Five people wanted to volunteer for my campaign. It's like that everywhere we go."

Mr. Barry also has more money than Mrs. Schwartz. He has raised $233,465 since May, compared with $120,023 for Mrs. Schwartz. And he benefits from a perception held by many voters that Washington ran smoothly when he was Mayor, from 1978 through 1990.

For a while it did. But in the last eight years, he presided over bloated employment rolls, a budget deficit that climbed to nearly $300 million, soaring crime rates and a middle-class exodus from the city. At the same time, Mr. Barry experienced a personal decline, socializing with women other than his wife, drinking and using drugs.

In pitching her own campaign theme of "renewal" for the District of Columbia, Mrs. Schwartz takes an occasional swipe at Mr. Barry's personal problems, pointing out, "I don't drink or take drugs, and I'm not a man-izer." But more often, she attacks him on issues.

"Personally, I don't dislike Marion," she said. "He had 12 years, and in his first term he energized the city. But his last two terms were a disaster, and he has banked on his smooth-talking ability to lull voters into a deceptive memory."

Countering her charges in speeches and debates -- they have had four, with another seven scheduled -- Mr. Barry insists that his experience as mayor makes him better equipped to run the city, especially when tax revenues are declining.

But Mrs. Schwartz said she had faith that residents would recognize her past achievements and overlook party loyalties.